Prepare yourself, Britain – for we are living in dark, and potentially biscuit-less times.

We could be facing a massive shortage of bourbon and custard cream biscuits, after Britain’s biggest biscuit factory was hit by Storm Desmond, dramatically halting production.

The United Biscuits factory produces biscuits for companies such as McVitie’s and Jacob’s – but was forced to halt production after Carlisle was hit by floods in December.

Now, they are yet to set to a return date for production, but say they hope it will be up and running ‘as soon as possible’.

It all sounds rather ominous, and shoppers have already expressed their understandable panic at the lack of teatime favourites.

Carlisle’s United Biscuits factory (Picture: Street View)

In a statement, a United Biscuits spokesman said: ‘We apologise if consumers are finding it difficult to get hold of some of these products and we are working hard at our Carlisle site to resume normal service as soon as possible.

‘We currently have 400 United Biscuits employees, contractors and suppliers working back at our factory site and supporting with the clean-up process, and resuming factory production is an absolute priority for us.’

Sainsbury’s has also done little to calm the panic, admitting that some stores may not be fully stocked with biscuits ‘until mid-April.’

Tesco’s, however, has been somewhat more reassuring – and promises that the biscuits will be back in stock on February 28.